I can assure you that Spotify does not have control over its price structure. Music industry lawyers don’t miss many tricks, and Spotify doesn’t have the leverage to try many. If Spotify’s business model is anything like the ones I’ve seen in the music startup line before, they are making very very little money on the subscription fees. That all goes to the industry. They will make their money on the ads and resale of marketing data.

Most music startups end up being a form of indirect payment from the site’s investors to the music industry. The industry remorra doesn’t mind killing the host. Someone else will try next year.

]]>By: Cmmhttps://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/11/08/dont-tell-me-to-do-the-math/#comment-3946110
Thu, 08 Nov 2012 19:43:12 +0000http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=119516#comment-3946110I am a long term and very satisfied Netflix customer, since 2003. Love the streaming, there is plenty more available than I can watch. Stuff comes and goes and comes back again. We have recently cut our DVD sub to one disc at a time, down from 3, plus streaming. We also have Hulu to catch current episodes of shows (my GF) and Criterion movies (me). We have Amazon Prime but don’t think I have used it for streaming, we have gotten it the last few years for the free shipping. But I buy so many more ebooks, including as gifts, that I don’t know if keeping Prime will be worth it.

The one thing I do miss is having access to extra features and commentaries. Obviously not on streaming, and many of NF’s rental discs are specially made to be rentals and don’t have the extra content, so that hardcore fans have to buy the retail version on DVD.

I also do not have cable or satellite, and only installed a digital antenna last summer for the Olympics. Netflix is our main source of tv viewing.

Netflix still has me in their clutches because they have DVDs. Not everything I want to watch is available to stream. I probably have at least 40 DVD only titles in my queue.

I have a full queue of 500 movies, and of those, only about 100 are available streaming, with the other 400 being DVD only. It’s not even close.

What’s also baffling to me is that, thanks to the first sale doctrine, Netflix can happily continuing buying and renting DVDs, and nobody else can get into that business. In streaming, however, Netflix is at the mercy of the studios, networks, other content providers, and rival services such as Amazon. If I want to stream, it’s as easy for me to do so with Amazon as with Netflix. If I want to rent DVDs, it’s Netflix all the way. And yet Netflix seems bound and determined to sideline its DVD business in favor of streaming.

For streaming, IMO, there is no such incentive and it’s the great growth engine of the future. If they don’t copulate the proverbial goat harder than any goat has ever been boned in the history of porking.
So, IOW, we’re hosed as consumers for the next 5 to 8 years.

Well, I agree that we’re hosed for the forseeable future, since the content providers seem determined to strangle the golden goose just like the recording industry is. However, I think there’s a role for a common portal like Netflix or Amazon. Your usual viewer isn’t going to want to root around for ten minutes trying to figure out which site (each with separate credentials and layout) has the movie he wanted to watch, and find out whether he can watch it on the TV, Bluray, game machine, laptop, desktop, or whatever. Or he can’t get Warner Brothers movies because he’s got a Verizon connection.

]]>By: Froleyhttps://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/11/08/dont-tell-me-to-do-the-math/#comment-3945486
Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:22:51 +0000http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=119516#comment-3945486Just want to mention two music things I’ve really enjoyed this week. First, the Max Richter redoing of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” is fantastic, my pick for classical album of the year. Second, the Stella sisters are great. Unlike some other kid acts there’s something beyond novelty in it; I hear some real talent and I’m excited to see where their careers go.
]]>By: gbearhttps://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/11/08/dont-tell-me-to-do-the-math/#comment-3945438
Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:12:07 +0000http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=119516#comment-3945438@Raven: Did you lose a lot of weight after you quit? Somehow my metabolism made a major change 6 months after I quit and I lost almost 30 pounds in two months without changing any other habits.
]]>By: Corner Stonehttps://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/11/08/dont-tell-me-to-do-the-math/#comment-3945397
Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:04:10 +0000http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=119516#comment-3945397@ericblair: The big content owners have much less incentive to play nice with Netflix on the streaming side. For hard media like DVDs they were a little confused at first, and I think they licensed the content to what they saw as a second order distribution hub. IOW, the media giants got blindsided. Shocking.
Now that they’ve had several years to see how they were left in the dust, they’ve been squeezing Netflix at each go round. But media owners really don’t want to set up a franchise to handle distribution so it still makes some sense to partner with Netflix. (edited: or some other distribution partner, but we’re specifically doing Nflix here)
For streaming, IMO, there is no such incentive and it’s the great growth engine of the future. If they don’t copulate the proverbial goat harder than any goat has ever been boned in the history of porking.
So, IOW, we’re hosed as consumers for the next 5 to 8 years.

I think someone in management finally started to understand their business model for what it really is. The DVD portion is the only toehold they have left into viability.

For the streaming side, I think they have a chance to endure if they really push to get Netflix clients on all the platforms they can. It’s like Steam for gaming: there are a lot of places to get downloads, but if you need to screw with different managers for each game it’s not worth it. If you get it on Steam, you get one platform, you can access your games if you move devices, and you have only one account to screw with instead of six.

Similarly, it’s great if you can get video content from all sorts of sources, but if that means you can only watch it on the Windows box in the basement instead of the nifty 72 inch TV and/or Bluray player you’ve got upstairs you’ve got a problem. If Netflix can dominate that space they’ve got their niche.

I know that other companies have thought this way, since there seem to be a bunch of weirdly-named services on my Sony Bluray player that come and go, but if Netflix can retain name recognition, and also a really good preference and rating system, they should be on top.

]]>By: Amir Khalidhttps://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/11/08/dont-tell-me-to-do-the-math/#comment-3945325
Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:51:19 +0000http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=119516#comment-3945325@Cris (without an H):
There was this box of US-made granola I mentioned a few weeks back: sugar was not among the listed ingredients, but “dehydrated and crystallized cane juice” was.
]]>By: Cris (without an H)https://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/11/08/dont-tell-me-to-do-the-math/#comment-3945295
Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:46:53 +0000http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=119516#comment-3945295Reminds me of a shampoo bottle I bought. It was a 24-oz bottle, and it had a big bright label that said in big letters
“50% MORE SHAMPOO”
and smaller below it,
“than 16oz size“
]]>By: NotMaxhttps://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/11/08/dont-tell-me-to-do-the-math/#comment-3945293
Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:46:10 +0000http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=119516#comment-3945293@gene108

Also, too saw Dr. No on T.V. a few weeks ago and boy is it dated, especially with how the womenz are treated. Rape is sort of implied as a consequence of not being in your place, minding a home for your husband and family.

True to the Fleming source material.

]]>By: cleekhttps://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/11/08/dont-tell-me-to-do-the-math/#comment-3945288
Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:45:24 +0000http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=119516#comment-3945288@Yutsano:
someone pulled the wooden dagger out of my heart.
]]>By: maurinskyhttps://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/11/08/dont-tell-me-to-do-the-math/#comment-3945287
Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:45:03 +0000http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=119516#comment-3945287I’m going to see Louis CK tonight. Woot!
]]>By: Ravenhttps://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/11/08/dont-tell-me-to-do-the-math/#comment-3945261
Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:36:49 +0000http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=119516#comment-3945261@gbear: Great! I’m just at 20 but three times in a month after I quit I got pulled over. I always thought that was some kind of sign that I was headed in the right direction.
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